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The association between the brain and mind pops: a voxel-based morphometry study in 256 Chinese college students

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Abstract

Mind pops or involuntary semantic memories refer to words, phrases, images, or melodies that suddenly pop into one’s mind without any deliberate attempt to recall them. Despite their prevalence in everyday life, research on mind pops has started only recently. Notably, mind pops are very similar to clinical involuntary phenomena such as hallucinations in schizophrenia, suggesting their potential role in pathology. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between mind pops and the brain morphometry measured in 302 healthy young adults; after exclusions, 256 participants were included in our analyses. Specifically, the Mind Popping Questionnaire (MPQ) was employed to measure the degree of individual mind pops, whereas the Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) was used to compute the volumes of both gray and white matter tissues. Multiple regression analyses on MPQ and VBM metrics indicated that high-frequency mind pops were significantly associated with smaller gray matter volume in the left middle temporal gyrus as well as with larger gray and white matter volume in the right medial prefrontal cortex. This increase in mind pops is also linked to higher creativity and the personality trait of ‘openness’. These data not only suggest a key role of the two regions in generating self-related thoughts, but also open a possible link between brain and creativity or personality.

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Acknowledgments

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470981) supported this research.

Conflicts of interest

Lei Zhang, Wenfu Li, Dongtao Wei, Wenjing Yang, Ning Yang, Lei Qiao, Jiang Qiu, Xi-Nian Zuo, and Qinglin Zhang declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No.2, TianSheng Road, Beibei district, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Lei Zhang, Dongtao Wei, Wenjing Yang, Lei Qiao, Jiang Qiu, Xi-Nian Zuo & Qinglin Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science and MRI Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Lei Zhang, Ning Yang & Xi-Nian Zuo

  3. Mental Health Department of Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong Province, 272013, China

    Wenfu Li

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lei Zhang & Ning Yang

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  1. Lei Zhang
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  2. Wenfu Li
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Correspondence to Qinglin Zhang.

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Zhang, L., Li, W., Wei, D. et al. The association between the brain and mind pops: a voxel-based morphometry study in 256 Chinese college students. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 332–341 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9396-2

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